Conduct of Litigation FAQs

You can check this in the CILEX Authorised Practitioners Directory.

As a Chartered Legal Executive, you are authorised as a Commissioner for Oaths and can exercise this right without supervision, provided you have a valid practising certificate. You can also carry out other non-reserved and non-regulated legal work without supervision.

If you wish to undertake any reserved or regulated legal activity, you will need a specific qualification and authorisation to do that, unless you are legally exempt. See the Reserved and Regulated Legal Activities section of our web page – Rights and responsibilities for more information.

We have produced some interim guidance about what you can and can’t do if you are not authorised in the conduct of litigation.

In short, if you do not hold litigation practice rights you can assist or support, but you can’t conduct litigation or conduct litigation under supervision. If you wish to conduct litigation, you need the relevant practice right.

The law is clear and the Mazur case has highlighted this. If you do not hold litigation practice rights you can only assist or support, but you can’t conduct litigation under supervision. We are ensuring that all of our content is consistent and clear in this regard. CRL has published and regularly updated details of authorisation to conduct reserved and regulated legal services. Authorisation-to-conduct-reserved-and-regulated-legal-services.pdf

This depends on your firm’s structure, but you cannot conduct litigation without the  appropriate practice rights.

You can currently gain a combined practising certificate to conduct advocacy and litigation, which you will need if you wish to conduct litigation. We recently consulted on introducing standalone litigation rights and will shortly apply to the LSB to enable this.

We hope to introduce these new arrangements as soon as possible once LSB approval has been received. This will allow tailored courses and pathways for those who want litigation rights but don’t need advocacy rights.

There are various routes to gaining practice rights. You can pursue the portfolio route, where you demonstrate your experience of litigation, including assisting in and supporting the conduct of litigation. There are two further options under the ULaw route, including training and assessment, and assessment only.

For more information see – ULAW Route for independent practice rights for Chartered Legal Executives.

We are currently ensuring we are prepared to consider a large volume of applications within our existing time frames, whilst also maintaining standards. If you are planning to make an application, we urge you to start to put together your evidence in advance – the more comprehensive an application is, the more likely it is to be approved quickly.

We have guidance on applications, which is available here – Practitioner Application – CILEx Regulation.

The rights to conduct litigation and rights of audience certification rules set out the knowledge, skills and experience requirements that must be satisfied.

The requirements do not specify the context in which the evidence has been gained, including whether this has been gained through assisting with the conduct of litigation or doing so under supervision.  Rights-to-Conduct-Litigation-and-Rights-of-Audience-Certification-Rule-approved-October-2021.pdf

Firms will need to satisfy themselves that they are compliant with the law.